Breakdown of Tarina kuulostaa uskomattomalta.
tarina
the story
kuulostaa
to sound; seem by hearing
uskomaton
unbelievable
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Finnish grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Tarina kuulostaa uskomattomalta.
Why does uskomattomalta end in -lta instead of being just uskomaton?
Because after kuulostaa (to sound), Finnish usually uses an adjective or noun in the ablative case.
So:
- uskomaton = the basic dictionary form, incredible / unbelievable
- uskomattomalta = the form used after kuulostaa
This pattern is very common:
- Se kuulostaa hyvältä. = It sounds good.
- Tuo kuulostaa pahalta. = That sounds bad.
- Tarina kuulostaa uskomattomalta. = The story sounds unbelievable.
Even though -lta/-ltä often has a literal meaning like from, after verbs like kuulostaa it is just the normal grammatical pattern.
What is the dictionary form of uskomattomalta?
The dictionary form is uskomaton.
Here is the chain:
- uskoa = to believe
- uskomaton = unbelievable / incredible
- uskomattomalta = ablative singular form of uskomaton
The stem changes a little when endings are added:
- uskomaton
- stem: uskomattoma-
- ablative ending: -lta
- result: uskomattomalta
This kind of change is normal for many -ton / -tön adjectives.